Overview

Dr. Carolyn Hoppe is a hematologist/oncologist at CHO and a clinical scientist at CHORI with a focus in translational research in sickle cell disease. Her interest in studying genetic modifiers of sickle cell disease began early in her fellowship, while working in the laboratory of Dr. Elizabeth Trachtenberg at CHORI. A recipient of the American Society of Hematology Fellow Scholar Award, she performed her initial studies investigating HLA associations with stroke risk in children with sickle cell anemia (SCA).

Dr. Hoppe was awarded the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Clinical Scientist Development Award (DDCF CSDA) to extend her work on genetic modifiers of stroke to a larger population of children with SCA. She successfully sought approval from the Stroke Prevention Trial for Sickle Cell Anemia (STOP) and the Cooperative Study of Sickle Cell Disease (CSSCD) executive committees for use of over 360 archived DNA samples.

In addition to her initial studies investigating HLA markers of stroke, Dr. Hoppe has expanded her research to include other potential genetic modifiers of stroke in children with SCD. Through her continued collaboration with Dr. Henry Erlich in the Department of Human Genetics at Roche Molecular Systems (RMS), and Dr. Janelle Noble at CHORI, she has applied novel genotyping assays to identify potential risk-conferring genes in SCD.

Dr. Hoppe has been a team member of the Northern California Comprehensive Sickle Cell Program for the past five years. As the medical director of the CHORI Hemoglobinopathy Laboratory and the California State Newborn Screening for Hemoglobinopathies Follow-up Program, Dr. Hoppe has expanded the services provided by this program to include molecular diagnostics. More recently, Dr. Hoppe and Dr. Frans Kuypers have jointly established the CHORI Laboratory Diagnostics Center and have recently received funding to serve as the central genotype-phenotype laboratory for the CSCC-Collaborative Database Project.